Possible Applications of a Unit on the Holocaust to the Connecticut Social Studies Curriculum Standards
A Color Key:
Blue:  A link to the USHMM teacher’s guide web page.
Black: Directly quoting a state’s social studies standard.
Red:  The correlation of studying the Holocaust to the standards.
Brown:  Other information. 		If a secondary teacher would decide to teach a unit on the Holocaust, it would be highly recommended to first read "Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust" created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which can be found at <http://www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/>

History

Content Standard 1: Students will develop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contexualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.
    In the study of the Holocaust, multiple sources are available for the teacher to direct students toward. Questions of how and why, questions of interpretation such as who did what, who knew what when, questions of reactions of victims, etc. . all can be formulated with the vast availability of primary sources and secondary sources that range from personal testimony of survivors, to photographic archives, to diaries and memoirs, to the records of the period, to historians' interpretations. Chronological knowledge is a must to fully understand the development from the first racial laws of the Nazi regime to the death camps. Cause and effect of events must be analyzed carefully.


Content Standard 2: Students will use historical thinking skills to develop an understanding of the major historical periods, issues and trends in United States history, world history, and Connecticut and local history.

    The Holocaust is one of the major events of the modern period that has its effects on world, United States, and Connecticut. The event must be fully analyzed to comprehend that effect from what it did to the culture of the Jewish peoples, to the culture of Europe, to the impact on the United States and the state of Connecticut. The study of the Holocaust includes complete understanding of the geography of Europe, of the chronology of events from the first racial laws of the Nazi regime to the implementation of the death camps; a chronology of events from racial attitudes in the United States as the war broke out, to the inaction of the United States Government, to the immigration of survivors to the United States including Connecticut.


Content Standard 3: Students will apply their understanding of historical periods, issues and trends to examine such historical themes as ideas, beliefs, and institutions; conflict and conflict resolution; human movement and interaction; and science and technology in order to understand how the world came to be the way it is.

    In a study of the Holocaust the basic tenants of Christianity and Judaism should be understood. These both come into the story as a student studies the issue of anti-Semitism. Music and the arts of the perpetrators and victims can help students understand the cultures of the people of Europe at the time of the Holocaust. Analysis of Nazi racial doctrine and how it moved to the "final solution" is to be made. Analysis of Nazi economic practices and its use of slave labor is to be understood. The technological, industrial mind set of the Nazis is to be viewed by the student as it led to the industrialized murder factories located in eastern Europe. The shift of the center of Jewish culture from eastern Europe to Israel and the United States as a result of the Holocaust is to be understood.


Content Standard 4: Students will recognize the continuing importance of historical thinking and historical knowledge in their own lives and in the world in which they live.

    All performance standards listed are definitely assured in a study of the Holocaust.

Civics and Government

Content Standard 5: Students will apply knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, how the U.S.Constitution, how the U.S. system of government works and how the rule of law and the values of liberty and equality have an impact on individual, local, state and national decisions
    A study of the Holocaust is a study of the antithesis of this standard. What can happen to a culture and society that is not based on the above values is viewed by looking at the Holocaust. The student should be able to see the need to have full knowledge of the American system and how it works by viewing what can happen without active participation in the system. Therefore, a study of the Holocaust can lead a student to embrace Content Standard 6 and Content Standard 7


Content Standard 6: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to participate in and shape public policy, and contribute to the maintenance of our democratic way of life.

Content Standard 7: Students will explain that political systems emanate from the need of humans for order, leading to compromise and the establishment of authority.
 

    And students can also be lead to understand the need to understand all performance standards in Content Standard 8.
Content Standard 8: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how the major elements of international relations and world affairs affect their lives and security and well-being of their community, state and nation.

Geography

    The Geography Content Standards 9 and 11 are used as described in the History Content Standards above.

Economic
 
    The Economic Content Standards are used as described in the History Content Standards above.